Title

Author

Date of Award

Degree Name

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Alyce M. Dickinson

Second Advisor

Dr. Heather M. McGee

Third Advisor

Dr. Bradley E. Huitema

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Restricted to Campus until

12-15-2018

Abstract

This study examined whether graphic displays of individual performance and graphic displays of the individual performance of each group member would increase performance when individuals were paid monetary incentives. All participants were paid piece-rate pay and there were three conditions: (a) no feedback, (b) graphic display of individual performance, and (c) graphic display of the performance of each group member. Participants were 80 undergraduate students who performed a computerized data entry task. The main dependent variable was the number of correctly completed entries. A monotone ANCOVA was used to detect performance differences, using data from the first session as a covariate to control for keyboard proficiency. As hypothesized, the group that received graphic displays of the performance of each group member performed the highest, followed by the group that received graphic displays of individual performance, and then by the group that did not receive feedback. The results indicate that both types of graphic feedback can enhance incented performance, in contrast to the results of studies that have examined other types of feedback (e.g., Johnson, Dickinson, & Huitema, 2008). The findings also extend VanStelle (2012), who found that those who received graphic displays of the performance of each group member performed significantly better than those who received graphic displays of only their own performance when they were paid hourly.